Just off the Shambles, a minute from The Portal Bookshop, sits a church with a quiet but overwhelming historical significance. Holy Trinity Church on Goodramgate has become known as the birthplace of lesbian marriage, thanks to Anne Lister – lesbian, entrepreneur and diarist.
Who was Anne Lister
Lister was born in Halifax in 1791, but the family moved to Skelfler House at Market Weighton when she was two, and that is where she spent her earliest years. She was educated at home, taught for a stretch by the Reverend George Skelding, the vicar of Market Weighton. She developed a fast and lasting interest in books, writing to her aunt at the age of eleven that her library was her greatest pleasure. In 1805 she was sent to the Manor House School in York, where she began a relationship with Eliza Raine, with whom she shared a room. (You see, they were roommates.)
Raine later fell ill and was institutionalised for much of her adult life. Lister had many other affairs, including a decades-long relationship with Marianna Belcombe, which continued even after Belcombe married and became Marianna Lawton.
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The marriage at Holy Trinity
Lister inherited the Shibden estate, and her business acumen, class and wealth gave her a certain leeway when it came to her scandalous relationships. So she took no trouble at all to hide her relationship with Ann Walker.
The courtship began in 1832, and the two of them moved in together before their marriage. York was noted as being more tolerant towards them than Halifax, so in 1834 it was York where the two women cemented their relationship, taking holy communion and exchanging vows before the altar.
Afterwards they travelled across Europe together. Lister was a keen mountain climber, and went to regions like Russia that many at the time avoided. In 1840 she caught a fever and died in Georgia. Walker had her body returned to England, and she was buried in Halifax, close to her birthplace. Walker originally benefitted from Lister’s will, but was later declared insane and admitted to the same asylum Eliza Raine had entered decades before.
The coal mines behind the money
Lister was not only notorious for who she loved. She owned collieries and coal mines, and as was typical of industrialists at the time, many of her employees were children, underpaid and overworked. Not long after her death, an inquiry into children’s employment in mines exposed the gruelling conditions underground, including in some of Lister’s.
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Lister was a trailblazer. She was also a very ordinary industrialist, and both things are true at once. The mines and coal pits gave her the financial security to pursue and court the women she loved, and that security came at a price paid by other people. It is said she often dressed and carried herself in a ‘masculine’ manner, possibly to be taken seriously – which tells you something about how hard queer women had to work simply to be listened to, even the ones with money.
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Her diaries, and the secret code
Lister’s diaries are a significant historical resource, and not just for the lesbian community. Across five million words she recorded her business dealings, national events, even the weather. She also went into great detail, in a secret code she devised with Eliza Raine, about her lesbian identity, including her methods of seduction – which, let’s face it, if she has tips, I’ll take them.
Lister is a profoundly important figure in sapphic history. Just as important is remembering everyone who never got to leave behind five million words, or even one. The children who worked in her mines. The countless other sapphic women who quietly loved and lost from the shadows.
Visiting Holy Trinity
The church is still there, tucked behind one of York’s busiest shopping streets, and you can walk straight in. It is one of the city’s oldest, with uneven floors, honey-coloured stone and box pews that are unique in York. A rainbow plaque at the gate, installed by York Civic Trust, marks Lister and Walker’s communion in 1834. It was York’s first LGBT history plaque.
Worth knowing before you go: the 18th-century gateway arch is currently propped up with a wooden frame after masonry started coming loose, and the Trust is fundraising to repair it. The church itself remains open.
Where: Goodramgate, York YO1 7LF – a couple of minutes from the Shambles and King’s Square Opening: Generally Wednesday to Saturday, 11am to 4pm, though hours depend on volunteer availability – check before travelling Entry: Free Access: Wheelchair access via the Petergate entrance. Floors are uneven and light levels are low. No toilets on site. Dog friendly.
Make a day of it
The Portal Bookshop is a two-minute walk away at 5 Patrick Pool, down a little lane off King’s Square. Queer owned and run since 2019, it is an LGBTQIA specialist with a heavy sci-fi and fantasy lean, plus local queer art, and the Over The Rainbow Café upstairs. Open Monday to Saturday 10am to 5.30pm, Sunday 11am to 5.30pm. Find them at @portalbookshop.
Nonchalant x
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Jenny (They/Them) is a freelance journalist and writer based in Sheffield, England. Their work focuses on themes of choice and identity, which have absolutely nothing to do with the five-year-long gender crisis that was their secondary school years, and they spend most of their time writing stories about gay little aliens.
